HomePod läuft nun mit tvOS

9to5Mac has analyzed the latest HomePod firmware available and found something unexpected: starting with version 13.4, the HomePod operating system is now based on tvOS, instead of iOS. […]

But unlike all other versions of the HomePod Software, 13.4 is derived from tvOS, and no longer the original iOS that iPhone and iPad runs. As we said, this doesn’t affect how you use your HomePod since they all run with the same base system, but it makes us think about what Apple is working on for the future of HomePod.

Filipe Espósito | 9to5Mac

Guilherme Rambo spekulierte im Stacktrace-Podcast (#079) über zwei Ideen, warum der HomePod sein Betriebssystem gewechselt hat.

Seine erste Vermutung: Drittanbieter-Apps.

You know what else tvOS has? Third party apps. HomePod-iOS did not. That was a separate OS. That was audioOS.

What if this move to tvOS on HomePod is like a Catalyst for HomePod kind of thing and you can use the tvOS-SDK to write apps for the HomePod? So your tvOS app would basically run in a headless mode.

Idee Nummer 2: ein Hybrid-Gerät aus HomePod und Apple TV.

What if there’s a new product and it’s going to be both: a HomePod and an Apple TV?

Because think about it: What does HomePod and Apple TV have different in terms of hardware – besides an HDMI port and a fan? The Apple TV has an ethernet port, but I’m sure Apple would be more than fine to remove the ethernet port.